However the expression on the girls face quickly fell."I can"t, mommy forbade me to wander around the house." Helea said sadly.
"Don"t worry about it, it"s not wandering if you know where you are going. In addition you will be with me, I will take all responsibility." Nathaniel said getting to his feet.
"Promise?" The girl asked.
"Promise. Now let"s go while they are busy talking." Nathaniel said crouching low and making exaggerated movement in mock sneakiness. Helea immediately laughed and started copying Nathaniel movements until they were out of the dining room.
Once they were out, Nathaniel took the hand of the little girl and started running to the room where he had seen the piano early today. It was some kind of huge library with a piano on the left side of the room.
"This is the first time I"m in this room without mommy here." The girl said.
Looking at the number of books here and their oldness, it kind of made sense. Some of these books were worth a lot of money so prohibiting Helea for messing with things here was only common sense. Taking place on the bench behind the piano, Helea sat beside him.
"So, what do you want to sing?" Nathaniel asked.
"I don"t know how to sing, I just came here to have fun. I like to dance better!"
"You can dance if you prefer, I will do the singing and playing part. How do you feel about "Call Me Maybe?"
"YES! I love that song!" Helea shouted, getting to her feet and positioning herself in front of Nathaniel.
"Okay, let"s go." He said, starting to play the song on the piano. Luckily for him it was not a really difficult song as he had heard it on the radio but never played it before.
"I threw a wish in the well…
...Don"t ask me I"ll never tell..
... I look at you as it fell…
…And now you"re in my way…"
The girl just started bouncing up and down happily and sometimes joined Nathaniel in the lyrics. Even if his piano interpretation wasn"t that great and he was messing a bit with the lyrics from time to time, it was still really enjoyable to do. Just seeing the girl that happy was worthwhile as he was a sucker for sad and bored kids.
"Can you do Hakuna Matata from the Lion King?" She asked ones the song was over.
Nathaniel was surprised to hear that as the Lion King was quite an old movie. Seeing a ten years old girl that has seen it and wanted to sing it was not ordinary.
"Lion King? How do you know that movie?" He asked.
"Mommy made me watch all disney movies even the old ones. My favorites are the Lion King and Mulan."
"Why these two specifically?" Nathaniel asked curiously.
"In the Lion King I love Nala! She is like the best! At first she is so funny and s.p.u.n.ky but after all the bad stuff happen, she stays loyal to her friends and helps him win back his throne. In the second movie, she is wise and smart. She always supports Simba but she does not hesitate to challenge him to show him when he is wrong. For Mulan, it"s entirely different. After her father is ordonned to engage in the military, Mulan chose to take his place because of his old injury that would ensure his death. Disguising as a man, she proved that women can be amazing soldiers when she turned even better than their trainer. Even after everyone refused to listen to her, she still persevered and saved the emperor and the kingdom. She showed that your gender does not define you and with enough determination, everything is possible. That"s why I loved her." Helea explained.
Taken aback by this, Nathaniel blanked for a moment. He had seen these two movies but never did he put much thought into them like the girl did.
"You are a smart girl are you?" Nathaniel smiled.
"Yes! Mommy always says that. She also said that it will not be easy for me to find a boyfriend because of it when she thinks I can"t hear her." The girl pouted.
"Don"t listen to her, boys are going to fight for you when they realise how smart you are." Nathaniel rea.s.sured her.
"Really?" She asked hopefully.
"Oh yes, trust me on this."
After this, Nathaniel played Hakuna Matata for the cute girl. This time it was even worse than the last one as he missed a lot more of the notes but his audience just did not care. She was just bouncing happily yelling Hakuna Matata on each verse. Nathaniel was laughing half the time when she was doing this. It was at the end of the song that people pa.s.sed the door of the library. It was Victoria, Madison and a couple that Nathaniel recognized as being Heleas parents.
"Here you are! Helea we talked about this! You can"t wander around the house, especially in the library!" Her mother reprimanded severely.
"Don"t blame her, this was my fault. Helea was bored so I brought her here to sing with me and have fun. I should have asked you before, I"m sorry." Nathaniel said to the women who seemed to calm down hearing that.
"Knowing him, I"m not that surprised." Madison said, smirking.
"Mommy! Come and sing with us, Nathaniel knows all the songs, it"s so fun!" Helea said, going to her mother and taking her hand.
"It will be my pleasure to sing a little and hear the sound of piano as it is not used often enough in this house but Jason is going to open his gift. That"s why we came looking for you, we need to go back to the dining room."
"Oh." Helea said disappointed.
"If Nathaniel here is willing, we may come back later." The mother of Helea said, soothing her hair.
Happy to hear that, the group went back to the dining room when Helea said something that almost made Nathaniel lose his footing.
"Mommy, can I marry Nathaniel? He is nice and he thinks I"m smart. He will be a good husband."
Hearing that, Madison, her mother and the couple exploded in laughter.
"Well, you did not lose this time, I will give you that Nath." Madison said between fits of laughter.
"Sweetie, you are too young and Nathaniel is your aunt Madison"s boyfriend. This is not possible."
"Oh." The girl answered sadly, looking like someone had just stole her new favorite toy.